Australia is a better country without household gun ownership. It's pretty well known that a gun kept for self-defence is more likely to end up killing or maiming a family member than an intruder. The American gun culture is paranoid and dangerous, and most in this country are content to continue to live in relative safety without such weapons. The statistics are on my side on this one.
Anyway, that's off topic. Best of luck OP.
You do realize that trusting those statistics is illogical right? Gun ownership is not some randomized risk entered into your life. It is something that offers zero increased risk for the responsible owner and great increased risk for the irresponsible owner.
This morning I heard someone mention that the odds of picking the entire NCAA Men's tourney selections and seeding right was 1:13.4M while the odds of being an astronaut are 1:13.2M, therefore he was more likely to become an astronaut than pick the brackets correctly. This view effectively removes all of the "user input" from the ratios of success, implying that the level of intelligence, schooling, and work needed to select the NCAA Men's bracket correctly is comparable to becoming an astronaut, which is simply ludicrous. Your argument relies upon the exact same fallacy.
I have never touched a gun in my life. I feel safer for it, as I know that's not abnormal.
Homicide rates:
Hmmm.
Just an FYI, most of the lowest suicide rates by state in that image of the U.S. are in the most gun friendly states. The rate in Maine for example, where I grew up, is comparable to much of western Europe. It is consistently one of the lowest states in all violent crime tallies. In Maine it is legal to own semi-automatic assault weaponry, any state resident of more than five years can obtain a concealed carry permit to have a loaded weapon. No permit is needed for an openly carried weapon.
Maine happens to have either the most or the second most firearms per capita in the U.S..
Gun ownership = violent crime is a trying to argue that inconsistent correlation implies causation, and that just isn't logically sound.
